Rocky road for council as snow costs rise

Repairing snow damaged roads may set the council back £2 million, engineers said today.

They expect the prolonged icy weather will cause increased numbers of potholes to develop this winter.

David Sparks, from the Local Government Association, said the snowfall had left “gaping sores in our road network.”

He said: ‘The wet combined with the freezing conditions destroys tarmac very quickly. As the ice seeps into the road it expands and rips chunks of the surface out leaving potholes blighting the highways.”

Taxpayer money will have to be diverted to repairs, which last year cost half as much. The news comes as the council is slammed because some parts of Harrow will not had bin collections in more than a month.

Last week’s rubbish collections were cancelled because of the freezing conditions, but pick-ups will not be rescheduled.

“It’s just a disgrace. My bin is full up now and that’s just two weeks’ worth of rubbish. I expect the other roads are exactly the same.”

The mother of two, of Nelson Drive, added:

“I’m registered disabled and I can’t drive, to go to the tip, and the bin men won’t take bins that are overflowing, or bin bags. Bearing in mind it’s been snowing, the bin is too heavy to wheel it back down the path to its normal position.”

The council responded by saying the icy conditions made it to difficult to arrange additional collections, but did not rule them out for when the weather clears. They also said:

“It would be confusing and difficult to begin telling residents that we are doing extra collections to deal with the backlog.”

With this morning’s surprise snow, the council may have to find a way to deal with the confusion.

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[…] Councillor Hall said they were taking pains to repair roads, but acknowledged that she has been receiving up to 30 emails every day on the subject. Last month it was reported that potholes would cost the council an extra £1 million. […]